Rafale M Over Libya

摘要

The Armee de I'Air (French Air Force), kicked off the allied intervention over Libya on March 19,2011. The following day, Charles de Gaulle left its Toulon home port to embark a carrier air group comprising eight Rafale Ms, six Super Etendard Modernise, two E-2C Hawkeyes, an Alouette III, two Dauphins, a Puma and two EC725 Caracals. A few days later two more Rafales joined the carrier off Libya, bringing the air group complement to 24 aircraft, including ten Flottille 12F Rafales. "When we left Landivisiau, we did not really know what to expect in terms of daily sorties," explains 'Harry' (name withheld for security reasons), the new Flottille 12F commander who took over in February 2011. "Nothing had been decided at the time, but we were already fully capable of fulfilling the whole spectrum of air-to-air and air-to-surface missions.